A standard dictionary definition of the fable is: "A literary composition in a form of a story intended to provide a moral lesson at the end." In parallel, the definition for the folktale is: "A description of culture, which has passed down verbally from generation to generation in any written or oral form."  Since the beginning of time, humanity has taken fancy in these stories. The location of origin of this genre was determined by scholars to have been in India, which may date back as far as the 5th century BCE. Translated into Arabic sometime during the 8th century CE,  a Sanskrit compilation of beast/animal stories called "The Panchatantra"  is the only record of  possible determinant of origin in India. From India, scholars have traced the path of the genre through China, Persia, and finally Greece.

The western interpretation of these stories began with the Greek Fabulist, Aesop. He is often recognized and accepted as the first cultivator of the genre. It was Aesop who gave these stories dignity and importance among the literary world. The influence of his fables and folktales have been fundamental and definitive. The collection of his stories are consistent, harmonious, possessed of marked individual characteristics, while fables and folktales in our time tend to be childish and incoherent. In classical forms, these stories were ingenuous interpretations in which animals were the main focus. Animals were represented as anthropomorphic (having human characteristics such as speech and action). This was the product of a time when people superstitiously believed that animals could talk, with which Aesop built his marvelous structure and became known as father of fables and folktales.

If not the most important, one very influential angle on the fable and folklore genre is the fixed tradition of the moralizing function that is found in them. Not to be forgotten among this is the importance of the narrator of these stories. The task of the person who tells them ends with human enlightenment which may take the form of a useful truth, or an ironical surprise. Using satire to identify human flaws is often used within this genre because these stories also aim to entertain as well. The tradition that comes with the telling of fables and folktales help create and confirm a sense of identity. Folklorists theorize that various cultures select stories that focus on events and individuals from their given cultures past to help shape their futures. 

It is hard to differentiate patterns between regional, national and international. The scholar, Radoslav Katicic, concludes that "folklore research up to the present has not created an adequate conceptual apparatus that would make it possible to accurately formulate an answer to this question."  On the other hand, Oldrich Sirovatka maintains an argument suggesting that all these differences are an expression of national peculiarity because the level of development of fables and folktales of a nation represents an organic component of the state and evolution of its national culture. When these ideas are confused and uncritically mixed in an scholarly manner, the question of the particular features, qualities, and traits remain unclear and blurry. How we can manage with interpreting the patterns across cultures can be made easy by focusing on national and regional characteristics within these stories. 

National characteristics of fables and folktales seem to be more abstract, more difficult to grasp, and (in the majority of cases) not as objectively concrete as local and regional traits. It will only be possible to reach conclusion about common national characteristics by more evidence on a folklorist/anthropologist perspective. The traits of regional fables and folktales are also not clearly defined. What makes it so difficult is that it can be viewed from the smallest scope, such as a single village or community, or even a family group, to a very large scope which can be view parts of several countries. Roughly, the characteristics of these stories include: a collection of different plots, intention to provide a moral lesson and entertain, the use of animals or persons to provide structure, and typically short in length. 

The majority of scholars agree that fables and folktales, without any concern about/having nothing to do with their international characteristics and patterns, bear ownership by the people that narrate them. To get a sense of how important oral traditions are among a certain culture, I looked at the research paper regarding Apache Moral Narratives: "Stalking with Stores: Names, Places, and Moral Narratives among the Western Apache."  Among these stories, most statements about Apache fables and folktales are "grounded in an unformalized native model" which expresses that "oral narratives have the power to establish enduring bonds between individuals and features of the natural landscape..."  The culture of the Western Apaches separate the major narrative genres on two basic semantic dimensions: time and purpose. Fables and folktales deal with certain events that occurred during the beginning of time (godiyanna), a time where the earth and all its inhabitants were achieving their present form and homestead. The narrators of these stories were given solely to the medicine men and medicine women, which they presented them for the primary purpose of human enlightenment and instruction. They convey cultural identity through the teaching of  these stories, how the Apache came to be and how the world operates and the roles that men and animals play in the universe.

We live in a time where knowledge is a necessity and gaining knowledge is at our fingertips. Before the internet and mass media, the ability to pass on information was solely in the hands of the person who took the role as narrator. Since the birth of written traditions, community scholars and scribes transported their oral traditions regarding fables and folktales to literature to help preserve the stories. However, literacy wasn't relevant in the world till modern times. Due to this late adaptation towards written traditions, old fables and folktales were spread by one generation to the next generation was through spoken word. Local and indigenous storytellers in cultures around the world took pride in the transportation of these stories orally. Nowadays, unless you actively seek out traditional storytellers, the best way to gain knowledge and learn about fables and folktales is through the pursuit of the written forms.